Operation: Citadel
by Pjaay
Summary: The Rebels of City 17 are planning something. Nicole, a simple medic, is ready for anything that Combine throws upon her. Unfortunately, when things don't go to plan, and she falls in on the path of legendary Gordon Freeman, How will things change? GxOC
1. The Plan

**Just a little story I threw together. I was in the mood to write, and I'm in a half-life 2 obsession right now... so... Why the hell not?**

**Please, read and review :)**

**-:-**

"Guys, We're here," Mumbled a grey haired rebel, rubbing a pale hand across his roughly bearded face and exhanging a long glance with the only medic of the group, "Is everyone alright?" he hoarsley said, whilst reloading his stolen pistol. The thin, brown haired woman nodded quickly with a slight clap and rub of her hands together for warmth, and tried to flicker a smile towards the man;

"Everything's seeming okay, right now, Gracie hurt her wrist hitting a guard, but otherwise we're all good,"

"Thanks, Nicole,"

The group of 7 stopped in a hustle inside a desolte and half-collapsed building, some of the younger rebels moving to warm their frozen hands over a burning barrel fire, and the older contributers standing around the oldest leader of the group, waiting patiently to hear any further orders and plans for the future missions ahead.

Desmond lowered his head slightly, not removing his captivating grey gaze from each of his followers' own.

"This is going to be tough," He said under his breath, ignoring the sullen grey plumes of steam rising from his chapped lips, "I know what we just went through was tough enough, but this is..." he choked a little on his words, "...It's going to be... worse,"

Nicole looked away and bit back a terrified expression, concentrating her blue-eyed gaze on a collapsed wall. Her free hand, which wasn't clasping a weapon, was rubbing slowly at her left arm, carefully she was running her cold fingers across the red embroided cross. The one that symbolised her old occupation, a doctor. With a half-encouraged smile, she looked back towards Desmond and said shakily,

"Whatever it is, we can do it,"

He smiled at her positive outlook on the terrible overtaking of their city, and nodded in her direction.

"Great," He smiled, pocketting his gun into it's holster, then looking at the rest of the adults who were respectively listening, "I'm guessing you all agree, right?"

Samuel, a brown haired mechanic, nodded enthusiastically and tightened the red bandanna he had tied around his forehead, he spat out some old gum and retrevied the last fresh piece from his pocket, "Obviously," he said between fresh chews, "We can take on the combine _guards, _but it's just the friggin' stryders and turret guns I'm worried 'bout," he shifted a long bladed knife between his hands, before wiping it on his sleeve, freeing it of the glooping red substance caking it's sharp edges.

With a grunt, Desmond nodded and bent down, removing his backpack in swift moments at the same time as unzipping it. Samuel grinned and copied him, as well as Gracie who hissed a little at the motion pressurising her hurt wrist. Nicole cleared her throat and watched as the group removed metal objects from their backpacks, assembling them in the middle of the small circle formation they had made. All in all, they had a decent amount of ammo and weapons left, even a few grenades. Samual chuckled and unstrapped the last weapon, and the one given the most praise and care, from his back, holding it like it was a child before lowering it onto the dusty ground.

"A rocket launcher," He said with a smug grin, full of pride. He patted the weapon as if it was his only child and stood up with a stretch.

"Yeah," Desmond agreed, standing up with a grunt and folding his arms, boring his thoughtful expression down at the weapons, "We need to conserve these, stick with pistols, knives, grenades, and tasers; ammo has to be conserved for..." he looked gravely at Nicole as she straightened her posture and sent him a respectful, silent stare, "... for _Operation Citadel_,"

Gracie locked eyes with the elder of the group and swallowed worriedly, before looked back silently at the three teenagers as they chuckled amongst eachother and held out their gloved hands over the open fire. She saw the bright look in their eyes, and not just from the reflection of the fire. Her eyes flickered to their weapons; pistols and tasers. You wouldn't usually see 13, 15, and 16 year olds bearing those kind of weapons, in this city especially, before the uprising of Combine. She blinked slowly then turned back to the adults she had been conversing with, slightly shifting the weight of the oddly empty backpack she still held against her shoulders.

"You know... This operation... The kids, they're gonna find it tough,"

Desmond nodded slowly, glancing at the teenagers also, then unfolding his arms and looking solemnly at Gracie.

"We need them," he said firmly, yet with a soft monotone rumble in the depths of his throat, "...and I'm as sure as hell that they need us, they wouldn't be able to cope on their own. Plus," He rubbed his hands together and inhaled slightly, "They're happy to scout ahead for us,"

Gracie mumbled something under her breath, but shook off some morbid thoughts and bent down to shovel ammo back into her backpack until it was full. She was slightly glad to see both Samuel and Nicole doing the same, standing up and staring at Desmond until he bent down to do the same.

"We can't stay here much longer," Desmond said after a long pause, and after standing up, "This house is bound to collapse and any moment, and no doubt that combine has sent some troops to follow us,"

He turned to face the only other exit to the room, a long grey corridor. He whilsting ubrubtly and nodded in the corridors direction after getting the attention of the teenagers. All three of them took one last savour of the warmth of the fire, which they probably wouldn't experience for another few hours to come, and came jogging over to the group.

"Yeah?" Jake, the 15 year old questioned, following Desmonds gaze to look down the corridor, "Is that where were headed?"

"Uh-huh," Desmond comfirmed, sending each of the children a somewhat pleasant smile before unoholstering his dirty, stolen pistol and walking slowly down the corridor. Jake, and the two other youngest rebels, Marie and Harriet, all withdrew their tasers and followed him, they were used to dealing with pesky headcrabs than the guards themselves. Gracie then followed, unweilding a pistol also, and then Nicole, the medic followed her with dual pistols revealed from the depths of her khaki trousers. Samuel was the last to follow, backing up the group with a .357 magnum clasped between two cold, dirty hands.

The leader of the group slowed to a halt at the end of the doorway, pressing his ear as far as he dared in the direction of the battered and burnt wooden door. Far inside the next room he head a few squeaks, and a lot of radio chatter.

He turned, holding his fist, clenched, up into the air. The sign the group had organised to silently mean 'headcrabs', then exposed a held-up open palm which meant that Combine Soldiers were inside. Ann odd combination, but something the group were seperately used to battling.

Desmond held up 3 fingers, the group all nodded.

2 fingers. Gracie swallowed nervously, holing her pistol up defensively.

1 finger.

With a yell, Desmond twisted around and kicked full force in the centre of the door, forcing it to fly off it's hinges and hit someone in the head. There was a muffled yell and the soldier on the opposite side of the door collapse on the floor with another shriek of help. Desmond centred his pistol on the three combines that stood around a large blue, glowing control panel, one of the men was prodding a headcrab locked in a cage, it was whimpering and pushing itself as far back into the corner of the cage as possible. The soldiers all looked sharply down at their fallen comrade, then up to the squad standing at the door.

"INTRUD-" One yelled, only to finish his sentence with muffled screams as Desmond pumped a few shots into hi chets, whilst Gracie took out the second, and Nicole shot madly with her dual pistols at the soldier poking the screeching headcrab.

Panting slightly, Desmond kicked the door off of the groaning body of the first Soldier to be struck down, and shot him multiple times in the chest and stomach. The groaning stopped and the body fell limp, blood pooling at the wounds across his chest.

Without a word spoken unmongst the group, they acted as if this had happen many time before, which undoubtebly is true, they filed into the room, Samuel picking up the door and pushing it tightly back into place, before securing it with a chair under the handle.

Nicole bent down and tested each pulse of all the men, checking if any had survived. None did. She and Samuel both went to work of stuffing them into a broom cupboard, then joined the younger of the squad on a battered leather sofa, who were watching intently as Desmond tapped things into the bright blue keypads of the control. Some bizarre noises were made as a result, and a sudden pictur popped up on the screen which made the whole group jump.

"_D-Desmond!" _The voice on the other side of the video chat gasped, his scrawny voice breaking slightly, _"Desmond Reaver, is that really you?"_

"Yeah, of course," The man in question smiled, "How are you, Dr?"

"_Oh, I'm fine, in my laboratory, safe with some weapons," _The Dr cleared his throat and leant in closer, shifting his glasses further up the bridge of his nose and squinting past Desmond, _"I see all of your squad are doing fine. I'm sorry, but I had feared the worst for your cause,"_

"It's okay," Desmond said sternly, "I knew our group had potential," he smiled a little and sent his group a smile, before returning to a professional poker face and looking directly as possible at the Doctor, "Freeman, I heard he was with you,"

The group shifted awkwardly, the youngest, Harriet, piping up and whispering the Free-mans name. Nicole blinked slightly at the back of Desmonds head, only to get her gaze caught on something else when she spotted a shaking figure to the control panells left. She opened her mouth slightly when she saw the shaking headcrab cowering in the cage, whipping it's head around and scraping it's frontal legs on the metal flooring of the cage. Silently, she slunk over to the cage, letting Desmond and the others listen to what Dr. Isaac Kliener had to say.

"_Yes, Gordon,"_ Kliener sounded worried, _"We had a problem with the portal a few days ago and he went off on foot to get too Eli,"_

"What?" Nicole heard Desmond declare, "Eli's lab is _miles _from your own!"

"_That's what I fear," _stated Kliener, _"But- You know Gordon, and what he did during the," _he cleared his throat, _"-the Black Mesa incident..."_

Nicole ignored the conversation and looked down to the stick that the dead combine had been using to prod the creature, the headcrab, and clasped it in the palm of her hand. Slowly, she forced it through the bars of the cage and fiddled a little so it reached towards the headcrab. It squeaked a little and twsited around, supposedly blocking it's veiw of the stick.

'_I thought Headcrabs were more vicious than this,' _she told herself, replacing the stick with one of her fingers. She watched, bemused, as the headcrab slowly turned around and stared absent-mindedly at her ourstretched pointer finger. It shuffled forward almost subsidedly and sniffed, before swaying it's body forward and back, giving a slightly happier squeak than when the combine was interacting with it.

There was an abrupt cough from somewhere behind her, and Nicole jumped around in surprise, oddly guarding the cage, as she noticed the whole of her squad watching her as if she were crazy.

"What are you _doing?" _Desmond hissed, withdrawing his pistol slowly from its holster and holding it so it aimed downwards, at the ground, "Get _away _from that thing!"

"But-" Nicole pleaded, locking her fingers around the thin bars of the cage, almost yelping when she felt the affectionate rub of soft headcrab skin against her fingers, "It's tame!"

"Who _cares_!" Desmond persisted, pointing and flicking his gun at the woman, forcing her to move aside. Obediantly, and not wanting to get on the wrong side of the squads leader, she moved aside. Aware that everyones eyes were on her. Noone _ever _disobeyed Desmond, they knew death was probably iminant if they didn't listen, because the whole groups plans of survival could mess up.

Just as Desmonds gun cocked into position, there was a terrified yelp from the control panel, followed by frantic laugher and a squeal of delight.

"_Lemarr!" _The pixellized face of Dr. Isaac Kliener beamed as he stared through the camera on his side of the line and at the shaking headcrab at gunpoint, "_Oh mg god! Lemarr you're alive!"_

"W-What?" Desmond opposed, flicking his gun yet again in the small aliens direction, "You _know _this thing!"

Dr. Kliener ignored the mans rants, _"Oh Nicole! You discovered my dearest Lamarr! She escaped when I came back from getting her some fresh watermelon!"_

Nicole grinned in glee, she had been right to think that the little headcrab was harmless! She, even Desmond, knew who Lemarr was, and that she had been debeaked many months prior to that moment, therefor was harmless, and had been declared missing by the distraught scientist mere days ago.

"_Nicole, If you would be as kind as to escort her back to me," _Kliener said slowly, before remembering the plans the squad had and saying, _"Err, or maybe just letting her tag along until we next meet,"_

"I'd be happy to!" Nicole interjected, just as Desmond raised a hand to complain, and almost impatiently, she turned on her heel and unlocked the cage, setting everyone on guard as the small alien jumped from it's cage and settled at Nicole's feet, rubbing its body affectionately around her ankles. She bent down to pet the small alien and grinned up at her squad. She noted that they were all smiling, and Samuel seemed perplexed by the tame little creature. Desmond coughed roughly and drew back towards the controll panel;

"We have to get moving," He told the doctor, "Nicole will care for your... headcrab, and we will hopefully be seeing you soon,"

"_Yes," _Kliener agreed happily, _"Goodbye, and Goodluck,"_

The screen buzzed to black and Desmond turned to the group, not giving the medic and her headcrab a second glance, he puffed out his chest slightly and looked at the exit to the room, a fire exit.

"Right," He mumbled, "We'd better get going," His pistol was now readied infront of him and the rest of the squad stood up slowly, "Who knows what kind of disturbance we've uncovered..."

The group headed out of the door, Nicole constantly checking for Lamarr, who had taken to running along on her left, not giving a shriek or even a squeal when a distant burst of gunfire arrived in earshot. She smiled as she jogged along, amazed by the little creature and it's braveness. If only she could feel like that amongst a war of life or death, now, she only hope that the Operation she was about to carry out went as planned, that Lamarr would remain safe, and that combine would suffer a big enough blow to possibly, _possibly_, withdraw from they terrible reign that had enforced over the city. City 17.

**-:-**

**School's started again, and you know how bad I am at updating. So I doubt anything else will come from this. But considering I have never written a Half-Life story before, this might evolve a little :P**

**Please, read and review for the sake of my influence... and the sake of Lamarr! 3**


	2. The Government Man

**This chapter is soooooo cliché, but I had been think about weapons and such... I couldn't help myself... and the object gave me some ideas for other chapters... just... ignore the rants building up inside your mind when you see it.**

**Please, just ignore it and don't flame.**

**Leave, _useful _and _nice _reviews. You know you love them :)**

Ear-splitting screams of overhead bullets, whizzing and exploding as they hit cement walls and fell to the ground. There were screams from citizens, combine guards, and rebels. All frenzied, all scared, all fearing for their god-forsaken lives. The chilling air stung at the bare faces of the rebels, their agape mouths screaming in agony as they pumped as much conserved lead into the bodies of their opposers whilst trying to not get shot themselves; sweat dribbled down their brows and mixed with tears of pain, joy or any other emotions they could have been feeling at that point. Joints ached and voices raged, all in angst of wanting the deepest desire; to win. Both sides wanted too, both sides knew they would, both sides grew host to doubt.

"Get down!" Screamed Desmond, flinging his back roughly against the cemented brick wall, somewhat out of view from the striders that groped the streets, firing endless amount of rounds into the bodies, animate or not, till it was sure progress had been made, and the disturbance ended.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Samuel cried, shuffling further back into the partial cover of an overturned car and hastily stuffing ammo back into a freshly stolen machine gun, "There's nothing else we _can _do!"

Desmond roared in ignorance and unclipped one of the remaining grenades from his belt, hesitating after pulling the clip only to send Samuel a flash of a grin, before lobbing it over the car and cowering down to cover his ears. Samuel only did the same mere milliseconds before a blast sent the floor shaking and numerous stacked cars and crates to come tumbling to the ground, giving the group a big enough, and hopefully painful enough, distraction to let them continue. The few people, unrecognisable in all the falling dust, dirt and bullets, scrambled into standing positions and ran as fast as their weedy legs could take them, in the direction of the towering building that controlled the city, and god knows how many others.

They ran, not bothering to count if everyone was gathered at the same time; as the only thing on the rebels' minds was their own safety, and the whizzing bullets up above their heads didn't do much to sway their choices. Each stumble and step failed to cost them precious time, as the fallen were straight back up on their feet and speeding towards the towering citadel.

_'That stupid building,' _Nicole cursed in her mind, jumping over a fallen combine guard, her hands clenched tightly into fists, pumping along with her tired body as she wrestled with staying at a fast pace. She could tell bullets were hot on her heels and didn't want to wait to find out what was going too happen. Her weapons had long run out and had resolved herself to cowering inside a building whilst her closest friends, and other civilian rebels, forged a war against combine; futile as it sounds.

There was a desperate cry to the womans left, and she saw a body fall from the corner of her eye, bright red blood sent flying forwards, splattering onto the pavement. She twisted in time to see the body squirming, and her medic skills kicked in slightly, sending her legs twisting in the injured womans direction. She instantly locked her hands under the yelling womans armpits and dragged her into the somewhat safe area behind a thick brick wall. She leant the woman against said wall and asked her hastily to removed the clothing from her shoulder.

"Ahh- SHIT!" The other woman cursed, peeling tenderly at the rags of red dyed clothing that sat torn against her wounds,

Nicole bent closely to the open wound and identified three bullet holes, two to the direct left shoulder, and one lower down; surely puncturing a lung and getting awfully close to a powerful, and important, organ.

"We need to extract the-"

"Don't!" The other blonde haired rebel yelled, "D-Don't touch-ch the wound!"

"But I-"

"Don't touch it!" She cried in agony, trying to cover the bleeding wound without touching it herself, "I-I'm not gonna make it anyway!"

Nicole grunted awkwardly, annoyed at being interrupted twice, and at the sake of the womans life, which could be saved if they acted quickly and removed the bullets. Her brow furrowed deeply and she looked into the pale womans bleak blue eyes, searching for an answer amongst the rapid gunfire and shells exploding around them.

"Nicole!" A distant voice yelled, "Nicole what the fuck are you doing!"

Desmond. Nicole raised her head away from the groaning woman and saw the man many metres away, motioning towards himself with a hand, urging her to hurry up. Her tense body turned back to the woman, only to find her eyelids half closed and her mouth hanging open slightly, both her hands were draped on the floor and were soaked in equal amounts of pure crimson blood.

"You... have to go..." The woman whispered, not giving the effort to look into Nicole's frantic eyes, "...take my weapon and get out of... get out... of..."

A long, cold exhale of breath, and the head of the woman fell flat onto her chest in a cliché way. Her final breath lingered enough to reach Nicole's own paling face as she watched all colour drain from the womans features. The womans long nose blocked the view of her thin, drawn, pale lips, and instead exposed the crown of her natural blonde hair, clearly greying with stress.

_'No more stress for you...' _Nicole thought solemnly, picking up the womans fallen weapon and examining it slightly, before grabbing it in both hands and turning to see if Desmond had stayed to wait for her. She froze when she saw nothing, or more so, no-_one_. The war scene was empty, and when she peeked slightly around the corner of the thick cement wall to see if the combines were still attacking in full throttle, there was no-one, everyone was gone and the city looked as bleak and boring as it always had been.

She squinted, her eyes focusing slightly on an oncoming figure. His body swaying in distortion from an unknown heat source, his features defining a little more with each oncoming step. Her gaze was drawn to this figure, this desolate, alone, person. Being the only moving thing on the deathly quiet horizon.

Then, with a blink, he was gone. She barely got the chance to try and see who he was before he disappeared in a matter of seconds. Nicole could hear the quickening throb of a pulse in the back of her ears as the feeling of being watched dawned over her. Frightened, she was about to turn back to the womans body when a warm breeze passed over her neck.

"Odd..." She pondered aloud, "It's too cold for a warm breeze..."

This was proven by her long, clouded, exhales of air, and made her wonder what on earth could have been causing the warm tingling sensation across her neck. She felt the breeze stop slightly, before resuming. Again and again the breeze paused and then continued, over and over. Her eyes opened wide slowly when she realised what she thought was a breeze was actually in-fact someone breathing. Someone breathing across her neck.

She whipped her body around, pulling out the dead womans blue crowbar and throwing her back up against the cement wall, her body freezing at the sight of a man standing directly behind her, with a face as blank and beheld as many crevices as the moon. His blue suit looked out-of-place amongst the empty city streets something no-one would wear on a day of war. He moved a hand slowly up to his chest and adjusted his tie.

"Good evening, Miss Nicole Shaw,"

-:-:-:-

Her hands quivered uncontrollably, her fingers unlatched and her weapon fell to the ground. The stranger leant forward and caught the object before it could clatter and cause an unearthly loud noise amidst the tepid silence across the frozen city.

"W-Who are you?" Nicole whispered, drawing her arms defensively to her chest as she watched the bowed man slowly straighten and hold the blue crowbar out to her, "What do you want!"

"Miss Shaw," The man said dejectedly, still holding out the weapon, "I, insist you take this weapon from me, before I am forced, to use it,"

She snatched the weapon, holding it out in-front of her with a light audible growl escaping her chapped lips.

"You hear me," She hissed, "You're not going to lay a finger on me, okay?"

The man's unfurled hand clenched slightly and he took a step back, straightening his tie again and shifting the weight of a briefcase he suddenly seemed to be holding.

"I have a proposition for you, Miss Shaw," He mumbled with a nod of the head, "A proposition I think you, are worthy for,"

Nicole blinked, lowering the crowbar slightly, realising the great weight of her wiggling backpack making her wince slightly. She bit her lip remembering Lamarr being trapped inside the bag, for her own safety, "A proposition?"

"Yes,"

"What kind?"

"One that would -ahem- assure your safety, for a few months to come,"

She stared at the cold-faced man, bemused by his breaking speech, and all the while amazed at how he managed to stop a war in mere seconds.

"Assure my safety... what about my friends?"

"They, Nicole, will have to fend for themselves,"

A thought struck the young woman and she suddenly blurted an open cause, "My squad need me! I have the bomb they wanted to plant inside the citadel! We-We..."

Tears formed in her eyes and she held the deep blue crowbar to her chest, sobbing slightly at the thought of abandoning her friends, and then kicking herself mentally at fact she had just given away Operation Citadel.

She looked up at the man for a hint of happiness, forgiveness, or even a hint of joy, and instead she was gifted with the solemn gaze of his aquamarine eyes into her dull blue own. Oddly enough, through her teary eyes, she could see the hints of remorse in the deepest of his eyes. She looked away, before shifting her squirming backpack slightly and opening her mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by the stranger.

"I work for the government. Not for combine, but for someone you do, not know. I am sure you, and your, friends, will be fine."

Unbelievable. Her mind was torn between her own and Lamarr's safety, and the loyalty to her friends. Her head lowered and she stared at her feet, even though she could see _his _too, and thought of what could be if she chose either option. If she went with this man, this total stranger, where would he take her? What would he do with her? Would she ever see her friends again? And then, there was the choice of ignoring him, going back to her dying friends and begging for mercy from the gods when the bomb is attempted to be planted. Would he harm her if she rejected his offer? Would he go as far as to kill her? The bomb; It might not even succeed, they mightn't even get into the building without being shot back to their roots... was it really worth giving up a hopelessly planned dream, which took months to prepare, and throwing it right back at the citizens faces? Maybe so, but the planet could be saved some other way... She still had the bomb hiding beneath Lamarr inside her backpack... so the opportunity could come again...

Nicole looked up, into the placid features of the Government man, past his shell of an outer-edge and deep into his sorrowful eyes.

"Okay," she confirmed, loosening her oddly tight grip on the crowbar, "Alright... okay... I'll go with you,"

"Good," The man said rather pleasantly, raising his head and twitching a smile at the edges of his mouth, "I am glad to be in the same line as work as you,"

She nodded.

"I will, so to say, _redirect _you to a safer place, yes. A place where, in all honesty, you will find another, eh, employee, of mine. I do hope you two become the _best _of friends,"

"Were you being sarcastic just then?" She asked in a wavering voice, only, she couldn't hear herself. Her voice was tiny, unheard to the man, as he straightened his tie one more and time and nodded in her direction, before walking casually past her and out of view. As soon as she realised what had happened, she hastily jumped around the corner to find him, except, he was gone. Instead, she saw wave upon wave of combine which she had expected to be there in the very in the first place, before the man in the blue suit arrived. Striders groaned as they shifted their weight down the road, no-one spotting her as she lingered back behind the wall and watched the spectacle of bullets and shells suddenly rain down as they had before. Noise split through the air like the bullets themselves, causing Nicole instantly withdraw back behind the wall.

The glimpse of war suddenly faded when the scenery, sound, and herself started darkening. Darkening so much that she had to squint just to make out the sun. Sound disappeared, as did everything else around her, and she found herself swinging her blue crowbar just to make sure nothing attacked her out of the blue.

Darkness enveloped her shivering body, and she then stood, motionless, frozen, in the abyss of nothing whilst a long, droning voice ordered something.

"Nicole..." It was the Government Man, "Best put on a friendly face, and put down the crowbar, when you arrive,"

_'Arrive?'_

_-:-:-:-:-_

"What the hell..." A male voice whispered loudly, somewhere left to Nicole's groaning body, "How the hell did you get in here?"

Mumbling slightly, Nicole Shaw dragged her knees forward and rested her thumping forehead on the cold cement flooring. The cold surface transferring its freezing temperatures through her head, causing her to sigh awkwardly.

Weakly, she sat back on her heels, obviously not hearing the sound of an astonished man standing not a few metres away, holding a coffee mug and staring wide-eyed at the woman who just appeared out of thin air.

She gasped, suddenly whipping off her backpack and slowly unzipping the main bag. Almost instantly, a hyper little headcrab jumped out of the large satchel and tried to couple with the womans head, instead, she pulled it down and hugged it tightly.

"You okay!" She laughed weakly, "Daww Lamarr!"

"What the Hell... Lamarr?"

Nicole paused, holding the squeaking headcrab against her chest and looking up sharply, her eyes settled on the man leaning against a cement wall his unruly short black hair a mess and dark bags visible under his eyes. His lips were agape slightly and his coffee mug was held a few inches from his lips. An old newspaper was on the floor at his feet, he had supposedly dropped it upon her arrival.

"Y-Yeah," Nicole said, hooking her backpack onto one shoulder, picking up her crowbar, and held Lamarr tightly against her chest. She stood up and shuffled back slightly, keeping a weary gaze of the off-duty combine. She could see his mask on a table on the other side of the room, and surprisingly, he wasn't really armed, "This is err... my headcrab... Lamarr,"

"I think you'll find Lamarr belongs too _me_," A separate voice said from behind the woman, and she jumped around in surprise to see an older man, with greying hair and a white lab coat, walking cautiously towards her.

"D-Dr Kliener!" Nicole gasped, letting her crowbar drop with a clang to the floor and rushing over to the scientist, "It's me! Nicole!"

She held out the squealing headcrab and let her jump out of her grasp towards the scientist, who bent down on one knee one embraced the small alien completely, he smiled up in Nicole's direction and nodded gleefully;

"I thought it was you," He said,

"...Who the hell _is _she," murmured the first person Nicole encountered upon appearing in the place she assumed to be Klieners lab.

Nicole turned to face Barney Calhourn, who was grimacing slightly at the sight of a medic rebel just standing with a backpack and a blue crowbar, lathered in other peoples blood, and a headcrab that had decided to start nuzzling her ankles.

"Err. I'm Nicole Shaw," she said confidently, "The runner for Operation Citadel,"

"Yeaaaahhh," Barney drew out, "I heard about that thing... planning on blowing up the citadel, hmm?"

"Uh-huh,"

The man took a long sip of his coffee and nodded, motioning towards her backpack, "You're the runner, You've got the bomb, so why are you here?"

"It's..." Nicole contemplated telling the Scientist and rebellious combine of the G-man, but thought a little deeper and changed her mind, "It's complicated... But I guess It's all postponed..."

There was an awkward silence and Kliener smiled in the womans direction;

"Nicole, If you would be so kind as to follow me?"

"Sure,"

Nicole hoisted the bomb in her backpack a little further up her shoulder and picked up Lamarr, who hooked her long claws over her shoulders and basically clung onto Nicole on her own. Nicole hugged the cute little alien and followed Isaac Kliener and Barney Calhourn into a large laboratory. There was one other person in this room, a woman, she was sifting through some files that were placed on top of a computer desktop.

"Alyx?"

"Yeah, Mr. K?"

"I'd like you to meet Nicole,"

The woman stood up, turned around, looked the medic up and down and nodded, smiling with her tanned features and holding out a hand.

"Heya, My name's Alyx Vance,"

She took it firmly and shook it,

"I'm Nicole Shaw, or Nicky if you like,"

The other woman grinned and nodded, before turning back to looking for something through the scattered paperwork all along the desktop.

"Could you use some help?"

Alyx looked up and smiled, glancing at Dr Kliener and the Barney, before back to Nicole,

"Sure! I'm looking for a black clipboard..."

The medic got to work with helping the other woman search for the clipboard, whilst Barney went back to sipping his coffee in a separate room, and Dr Kliener resumed whatever science he had been doing before she arrived. Lamarr was sitting calmly in her kennel, swaying her body slightly and emitting a few squeaks every now or then.

-:-

Everyone was busy, so nobody noticed the hidden entrance to the laboratory swing open and a human walk casually in. The person strode casually past the two girls, stopping momentarily only to notice the new face laughing along with Alyx at something they had found. He continued on into a separate room to get something of importance, pausing and kneeling only to pet a squeaking Lamarr, he entered the empty room quietly, kicking something on the floor and inhaling deeply when there was a slight noise of metal scraping against a hard surface.

Blinking, he bent down and picked up the blue crowbar, confused. He held it in his hands for a few moments, contemplating who could have owned it. Not Kliener, as he was weary that Lamarr was scared of such a weapon. Not Barney, because he had the tasers and pistols that combines were given... And not Alyx, because she'd never mentioned it before.

It must have belonged to the medic.

**A lame ending because I'm tired.**

**It's so cliché that I think I'm gonna throw up.**

**Cba to proof read.**

**But I'm going to do it anyways.**

**I know flaming and stuff is gonna come, I'm prepared...**

"_**You're style is all wrong,"**_

"_**I can't understand your sentences!"**_

"_**All wrong structure!"**_

"_**Rubbish characteristics!"**_

"_**The storyline is FUCKED!"**_

**That's what I'm waiting for.**

**BUT ANYWAYS. READ AND REVIEW :D**


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